Electra stake sales slow down

Wednesday 19 December 2001 00:00 BST

THE SPEED at which Electra Investment Trust could realise its assets slowed sharply in the past six months. Chairman Sir Brian Williamson said this followed two successful years of sales of stakes immediately following the defeat of 3i's £1.3bn hostile bid in 1999.

Williamson said unless conditions in the banking, equity and private equity markets changed he expected the bulk of further realisations to come through in the second half of 2003 and in 2004. He added: 'That's highly dependent on where we are in the cycle.'

Chief executive Hugh Mumford said that Electra's 10 largest investments now made up 40% of its value and he was not going to be pushed into selling them at knockdown prices. But he said that even in the two months since the year-end the market had improved. 'In October and November we realised investments worth £40m, which is more than in the preceding six months.'

Over the year net asset value dropped by 23.5% to 830p a share compared with a fall in the FTSE All-Share index of 22.7%. This was better than the market expected and Electra shares rose 17p to 653 1/2p.